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Battle of Nûrnen-Dûr (DoM)
The Battle of Nûrnen-Dûr was the largest battle of the khandish involvement in the Civil War of Mordor. The battle, which pitted a coalition of variag soldiers under the leadership of Ûvatha of the Borzjîgîn, the later Khagan of Khand, and nûrniag rebels against the orcs of Nûrnen under the leadership of Balcmeg, and the black númenórean mercenary Agânôhîn. The battle ended in a deciesive victory for Ûvatha and the complete destruction of the orcish horde. As a result of the battle the orcs where soon pushed out of Nûrnen which in turn became a buffer state between Gondor and Khand. The victory also increased the popularity of Ûvatha dramatically leading to his eventual ascent as Khagan of Khand. The Battle of Nûrnen-Dûr was the last major battle in Middle-Earth in which orcs played a dominant role on one side. After the fall of the orcish chiefdoms of Nûrnen the race was never again able to establish any sort of unified command structure and eventually went extinct. Background The donations of Nûrnen Civil war in Mordor Prelude The variag invasion Armies Host of the orcs The forces of Balcmeg consisted of the following troops: 500 warg riders 2,500 Uruk-Hai 5,000 Spearmen 2,000 Archers 10,000 Regulars 150 Black Númenórean Knights 350 Black Númenórean Infantry Host of Ûvatha The forces of Ûvatha consisted of the following troops: 100 Chariots and War Wagons 500 Kataphracts 1,000 Uhlans 1,000 Horse Archers 2,500 Axemen 1,000 Archers 800 Spearmen 350 Gladiators 9650 Slaves The Battle Battlefield The battle took place eleven kilometers northeast of the city of Nûrnen-Dûr itself, as Balcmeg had deemed it too dangerous to fight the battle at the city itself as he feared that the inhabitants of the city would rally in support of the forces of Ûvatha. The western part of the battlefield was dominated by two hills from which the battlefield, and Nûrnen-Dûr could be overlooked. To the west of the hills was a fairly large plain of a roughed terrain. On it, near the eastern part of the battlefield, was a small abandonned village. Initial dispositions Balcmeg having left Nûrnen-Dûr late on November 16 was the first to arrive at the battlefield with his hordes. Having left a thousand of his regular troops as well as a thousand of his archers in Nûrnen-Dûr itself to prevent the city from rebelling and attacking him from behind the orc warlord commanded more then 18,000 men initially. Despite his numerical superiority he none the less took a defensive stance taking up position between the two hills with the majority of his troops. The orcs formed a heavy formation with spearmen in phalanxes at front protected by the thousand orcish archers. The black númenórean Infantry and the Uruk-Hai was keept in reserve, while warg riders and black númenórean knights formed the left flank. On the right Balcmeg placed only his regulars and a few archers and pikemen. They however took up position on the slopes of the larger of the two hills to take advantage of the terrain to make an enemy cavalry charge, what Balcmeg feared the most, near impossible due to the terrain. Ûvatha arrived several hours after Blacmeg with his 7,000 variags and 10,000 rebellious slaves. Taking note of the highly defensive position Balcmeg had taken, a different approach then the one so many orc hosts had adopted against the variag horde in the past, Ûvatha briefly considered sending his cavalry forces around Balcmeg to head directly for Nûrnen-Dûr in the hope that the city could be goaded into rebellion catching Balcmeg between the walls of Nûrnen-Dûr and the axes of the variags. Ûvatha's uncle, Menmarôt, however advised against the plan as he argued that it would take at least three to four hours before any forces from Nûrnen-Dûr could join the battle at which point Balcmeg could have very well overwhelmed the khandish infantry. Furthermore several of the former slaves suspected that the city would not dare open rebellion as long as twenty thousand orcs stood right outside its gates. Instead Ûvatha, who took up headquarter in the village, positioned his troops over a broad front facing the enemy phalanxes. With five hundred uhlans and five hundred horse archers on the right flank facing the enemy left Ûvatha hoped to keep the enemy cavalry, much inferior to his own, occupied. On the left flank Ûvatha stationed most of the slaves with most of his archers hoping that the inexperienced slaves when supported by the archers would be enough to hold the enemy enemy regular troops, which was ill equiped and trained compared to the more specialized of the orc troops at bay. In his center Ûvatha placed himself and all of his chariots and war wagons in the hope that this could provoke Balcmeg to abandon his defensive position and attempt to attack Ûvatha personally. Also in the center most of the variag axemen took up position. The rest of the variag forces, including all the kataphracts, where keept in reserve to counter any attack from the large and powerful enemy reserves. Begining of the battle The battle began early on the morning of November 17 when Ûvatha dispatched his horse archers against the flanks of the orcs. Utilizing the same tactic that had crushed the forces of Gorkil and Shagrat at the battles of Red Pire and Goblinton Ûvatha's archers launched a barrage of arrows against the enemy troops doing considerable damage to the lightly armoured orc troops on the right flank of the orcs. The attack was however largely foiled on the orcish left flank as the warg riders and black númenórean riders took up a light position making it difficult for the horse archers, who dared not ride to close, to hit their targets. The attacks was brought to a hold after few minuttes as Balcmeg ordered his archers to launch barrages of arrows against the incomming horse archers of Ûvatha. Ûvatha, who had hoped that the attack of his horse archers would goad the enemy into attack exposing themselves to his heavy kataphracts, then dispatched his one thousand cavalrymen on his left flank to move around the enemy right flank in an attempt to provoke the enemy cavalry into attack. This manouver proved succesful as Balcmeg could not allow himself to be encircled. As a result the 500 warg riders, under command of Mauhúr of Moria, rode out from the flank to meet the twice as numerous khandish cavalry on the battlefield. After exchanging arrows, which caused much greater damage to the warg riders then the khandish uhlans and horse archers, the two forces clashed a half kilometer from the left flank of Balcmeg. Initially the orcs did well despite their numerical inferiority as the large and intelligent wargs scared the variag horses and for a time the orcs gained ground. Yet the cavalry of Ûvatha eventually broke out of the close combat engaging the enemy in smaller groups throwing spears and firing arrows against the wargs. This allowed the khandish forces to take advantage of their numbers, their superior missile weaponry and their better steeds. Dozens of wargs where eventually taken down leaving the khandish riders free to ride down a growing number of dismounted orcs. Seeing that the wargs where being overpowered the black númenórean captain Agânôhîn to ride out with his 150 knights to assist the wargs. While Ûvatha began marching forward with his main force Agânôhîn surprised the khandish riders with his heavy armoured knights. Using their long lances and heavy swords, weapons superior to that of the medium armoured and armed uhlans and lightly armoured and armed horse archers Agânôhîn managed to salvage the warg riders from a near complete disaster and temporarily drove the numerical superior khandish riders back giving him time to regroup the orcis cavalry. The first engagement ended in a draw as both forces returned to their initial positions. The first wave of attack Aftermath and impact The most enduring result of the battle of Nûrnen-Dûr was the final destruction of a coherent orcish military power. Following their disastrous losses, including the dead of the last great orc warlord of Nûrnen orcish dominion over Nûrnen quickly fell apart. The battle furthermore marked the beginning of the nûrniag nation's rise to prominence as the slaves and citizens of Nûrnen-Dûr was able to establish a centralized nûrniag state following the battle. Another result of the battle was the establishment of warm relations between the Reunited Kingdom and Ûvatha, one that would later develop into a relation between the Reunited Kingdom and Khand, as Ûvatha gained lordship over that state in the years following the battle.